Colts had the winning look, Raiders did not

News, notes, quotes and observations from the Raiders’ 31-26 loss to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday at the Coliseum:

— Indianapolis is closing in on its eighth straight division title because of Peyton Manning, of course, but also because the Colts have had systems in football in place for a long time and play that way.

There isn’t a lot of difference between the talent on the Colts and Raiders, but unlike past years, when a lot of the Oakland talent was largely myth, you could even make the argument that the home team had the better players.

Indianapolis players are plug-ins for specific roles, and their execution makes up for anything they may lack in pure ability.

The Raiders found themselves unable to cope with the Colts adjustments Sunday, whether it was Peyton Manning recognizing the big nickel with Mike Mitchell immediately and switching pass plays to run plays, or the Indianapolis Cover 2 defense playing deep, allowing short completions and rallying up to make the tackle.

Indianapolis ran for 191 yards on 39 carries, the most yards since it had 226 in 2007. Oakland had only three tackles for losses. Dominic Rhodes, who re-joined the Colts just three weeks ago and played for the Raiders in 2007, had 98 yards on 17 carries.

It was Rhodes’ biggest yardage game since he gained 122 yards for the Raiders against the Chargers in the 2007 season finale.

Cable said the Raiders should have been able to stop the run with their big nickel and said the Colts hit a few big plays but then noted, “it was a lot of fours and fives and fours and fives. It was good consistency on their part.’’

Defensively, Indianapolis shut down the outside run to Darren McFadden (45 yards, 11 carries) and leaving one to wonder why Oakland didn’t go right at the heart of the Colts defense rather than trying to string it out against a team that was at its best on the perimeter.

Oakland had 80 yards on 20 carries.

Asked about the Colts’ ability to defend the perimeter, Cable said, “We’ve faced that before. In the first half, certainly, they had a plan for our outside run.’’

McFadden was limited after an ankle injury late in the third quarter. Cable called it turf toe, McFadden said he rolled an ankle.

“I don’t think it was anything they were doing,’’ McFadden said. “We just kind of got away from it when we got down. It was kind of off and on and we couldn’t stay on the field long enough to help the defense. It was frustrating.’’

— The Raiders had their vertical game reduced to swings and short passes by the Indianapolis Cover 2 pass defense. Quarterback Jason Campbell completed 29 of 42 passes but for only 231 yards and a long of 26 yards to Louis Murphy.

“They were smart about us. They knew what type of team we are, and they took away some stuff,’’ said Chaz Schilens, who caught two passes for 16 yards _ his first catches of the season. “A lot of cover-2, they made it hard on us. The shorter stuff underneath was a little more open, so that’s what we were trying to do.’’

– Cornerback Stanford Routt said he didn’t want to know how Kansas City was doing against Tennessee. Cornerback Chris Johnson said he heard the Chiefs were up 31-7. Zach Miller didn’t want to find out but someone told him the Chiefs had won.
Did it matter? Hard to tell. Looked more like the better prepared team won.

— Peyton Manning’s stats were nothing to gawk at _ 16 of 30 for 179 yards, three touchdowns and interceptions by Michael Huff and Chris Johnson.

But he dominated the game in terms of pace, tempo-and play-calling.

Defensive end Tommy Kelly on Peyton Manning: “He checks out on a lot of stuff. A mean a lot of stuff.”

Safety Michael Huff on Manning: “It’s tough. He’s an offensive coodinator on the field and calls whatever he wants to call.”

Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha on Manning: “There’s not a quarterback I’ve played against that controls the game the way he does. He basically handles every situation and he’s a coordinator on the fly.’’

It was vintage Manning on the Colts’ final first down, a 26-yard naked bootleg around left end.Manning didn’t tell anyone in the huddle what he was doing, the better to sell the play, and slid to a stop at the 4-yard line rather than score a touchdown to kill the clock.

The Raiders had closed within 31-26 on Campbell’s 6-yard pass to Zach Miller, which capped an 80-yard drive with 1:51 to play. The Raiders then failed to recover the onsides kick, with Colts tight end Jacob Tamme coming down with it.

Miller had nine receptions for 66 yards, his most catches since getting 11 in Week 4 against Houston. It was his first touchdown since Week 7 in Denver.

–Campbell found himself needing to unload the ball early and took some shots although he was sacked only three times. Edge rushers Robert Mathis (1.5 sacks) and Dwight Freeney (1 sack) made their presence felt and you know it was a long day for rookie Jared Veldheer when Cable said of his performance, “I think today he learned how to utlilize help.’’

— The Raiders, meanwhile, did not sack Manning. Nor did they get close to sacking him. Manning has always been one of the best in the league at getting rid of the ball.

Rookie Lemarr Houston played a lot of defensive tackle in the absence of Richard Seymour (inactive with a hamstring pull) along with Tommy Kelly and John Henderson. Henderson was credited with 11 tackles.

— Raiders place kicker Sebastian Janikowski broke the club scoring record with his field goals of 49, 38, 51 and 45 yards. He has 135 points, breaking the mark of Jeff Jaeger (132 in 1993).

Janikowski is the first kicker to have two kicks of 59 yards or more. He had a 61-yard field goal against Cleveland last year.

– Jacoby Ford’s game-opening 99 yard kickoff return for a touchdown gives him three this season, a Raiders record. He also opened the Miami game with a kickoff return for a touchown. Oakland lost both times Ford started the game with a kickoff return.

“When I get to the kicker I pretty much know I’ll get to the end zone every time,’’ Ford said.

– Some Raiders actually seemed confused that they weren’t going to get a shot at the playoffs even if they run the table in the division.

Johnson said he even heard a rumor the league would make a rule change of some sort to reward teams that went unbeaten in division play but didn’t make the playoffs.

Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer

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That’s kind of my point. Marshall has been allowed to do things that we haven’t seen a DC do here in a long time. Al apparently has some level of trust in him.

But it’s no secret that Al likes to see a certain type of scheme played with certain personnel. It’s not like a DC like Dick LeBeau (for example) could come here, implement his own scheme and control the draft so he gets the players that he wants.

397.J Hill Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Al Davis and his ways get in the way of success.

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Who runs the pawn shop, you or your “GM”?

Wait, let me guess, I bet your and owner/GM as well, lol.

+++++++++++++

Al has the absolute right to run the team into the ground….I just wish he wouldn’t. It takes a big man to realize he no longer has the energy to put in the time to be a successful NFL GM, and admit that the game has passed him by. Most CEOs have to be forced out too.

Personally, I just hope that Al can somehow get strike lightning in a bottle like he does once in a while. Throw enough schyt against the wall enough times eventually something has to stick. He might mistakenly hire a coach with some smarts and a backbone, and he might accidentally bump into a QB that is a leader and can get things done. You just never know.

But in my heart of hearts I know Al Davis is to the point in life where he would rather see the team destroyed by his own hands than see a third party GM come in and have success where he failed. Al would be more miserable with a GM who won him a super bowl than he would be leading the team himself to another stretch of horrible years.

http://Raiders.com RaiderTW

NFL chnnl on Weds. 1pm est Raiders v Colts for those who saw it choppy & grainy on their computer like I did.
11am MST.

J Hill

I don’t think the HC or any coaches should control the draft. As far as it should get is having input on the wish list, if you will. You shouldn’t have to look any further than the last draft to see that isn’t the issue.

http://Raiders.com RaiderTW

Gruden for Donkies coach!

Just Fire Baby

Is that on the QB or the OC?

*****************************

Good question, and tough to answer because Hue really doesn’t have a track record.

JC’s rep has been to be too easy to check it down and take the 4 yards, which isn’t horribly awful. Just wish, especially when we are losing and struglling to make a play, that he would force it a little more.

On the TD drive, I was screaming on here to “fkn fling it down the field” as I say, and finally he threw it to Murphy (in double-coverage BTW) and viola, 26 yards.

I see no reason he can’t do this an extra play or two a half, and this (IMO) is the biggest thing holding him back.

He is like the boxer losing on the cards in the later rounds, who refuses to deviate from the jab and defense strategy. Sometimes you got to cut it loose because you are losing anyways.

Just Fire Baby

Rams-Seahawks flexed to the Sunday night game??

LMAO!!!

J Hill

I think it’s just fair to say that both Hue and JC could improve. And will need to if our defense is going to be one that continues to give up over 24 pts.

YoungAmerican

# J Hill Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 9:01 am

I don’t think the HC or any coaches should control the draft. As far as it should get is having input on the wish list, if you will. You shouldn’t have to look any further than the last draft to see that isn’t the issue.

————-

What about the previous seven drafts?

This is what a real GM does. They bring in coaches who have an actual, cohesive vision of how to run the team, and the GM helps bring in personnel who fit that vision.

As much as I love Al and what he’s done for football and for the Raiders, his vision is “get a guy big/strong/fast enough to win one-on-one matchups all day long”, and it’s really not that simple. Especially nowadays when coaches are very good at coaching schemes that downplay one-on-one matchups.

inonewordraider

Why do we go away from the run when the only games we win are the ones that we don’t go away from the run? This is all on Hue Jack and Cable for not telling Hue Jack he needs to call run more. Maybe we need a new OC more than we do a HC

JerryMac had it right and there is no excuse. The better prepared team won. When Seymour was declared out, I knew it was going to be an Indy victory and our pass rush confirmed my fears. Need to get rid of Cable.

Just Fire Baby

The one play where Nnamdi was on the side of the field with nobody within 20 yards of him was laughable.

It only resulted in about a 7 yard pass, but safe to say that wasn’t the only time they did something creative like that.

Any defense that can’t ad-lib to where your best player is at least DOING SOMETHING (fck fake a blitz at the very least) is not ready for it’s opponent.

J Hill

What about the previous seven drafts?

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Bad luck starting with Gallery. Consensus pick to be great and was praised by all. Same thing with Huff. After the Gibson, Stuey, and Dorsett stints, I know I sure wanted Huff over Lienart.

I wanted Peterson instead of Russell, but who wouldn have thought the guy would just be a drug addict mayne? DAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!

I think the book is still out on DHB. I think that guy is actually going to be pretty decent.

RaiderfanNY

There are plenty of things to not like about yesterday’s game.

You have Hue Jackson’s unwillingness to run the ball between the guards against an undersized D.

You have John Marshall sticking with a one-linebacker defense when it was clear that they could not stop the run.

But the main thing I take from the game is Jason Campbell will never get it done against quick, aggressive defenses. He is too slow to make decisions and release the ball. His first concern is not making mistakes and he is actually afraid to throw the ball down field. And, most importantly, he is just not accurate enough. No more than half his passes are where they need to be.

If Campbell is the starter next year, say hello to 8-8.

We need a QB who is not currently on the roster. Who should that be? Beats me.

Just Fire Baby

Through backup running backs and backup wideouts and a backup tight end and backup offensive linemen, the Colts are starting to look like a team you don’t want to play in the playoffs.

Peyton could play with a top tier collegiate O-line and you would barely notice the difference.

tuckrulefool

Why we lost yesterday (not necessarily in order):

1. Campbell is unable or afraid to take chances (both with his feet or in the air). There can be no sane counter argument to the fact that WE NEED a QB upgrade in 2011. Campbell and Grads can fight it out for the BACKUP slot.

2. We STILL cant stop the run, period. Even poor rushing teams like Indy have their way with us. THIS was the most MADDENING and DISAPPOINTING aspect of yesterday’s game. I will tell myself it was because Seymour was out (but I know better). What we NEED to end this cr/-\p is a SWAP to a 3-4 with more beef at DT. We almost have the personnel. In 2011 we need to draft/pick up a REAL RUN STUFFING IML and another John Henderson-esque BIG BODY DT.

3. EXTREMELY TICKY TACK officiating. Yesterday was BEYOND belief. Inconsistent calls too (see non-call on Ford in 4th). Its sad to watch the decline of our once awesome sport at the hands of Good(bad?)ell and Company. What we have now is the National Flag Football League (NFFL). (-Patent pending-)

BONUS:
2011 WISH LIST ADD ON 1- SIGN a real cover corner to go with ASO. If I can choose (which I can’t) I’d go hard after C. Bailey. A pro’s pro who CAN cover and shut people down (despite his age he’s better than Revis imo.)

2011 WISH LIST ADD-ON 2-
PLEASE for the love of G*d sign a REAL honest to goodness number 1 or 2 wideout already! ENOUGH with the no experience clown show at WR. And yes, I am glad Chaz is visible again but he is completely unreliable due to fragility of every single bone in his body. Steve Smith (Car) is likely available and would be my first choice.

http://0 Bob Marley

John Fox had 3 winning seasons in 9 years as Carolina’s HC, I don’t get why people around the league regard him as a great coach.

He’s a good guy, his teams usually play hard and he can coach a defense but his conservative ideas on offense can drive you crazy.

BigLefty

# Dakota Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 7:36 am

JFB,

I hope he can, but I don’t think you can learn or develop instincts and speed. You either have them or you don’t. McClain doesn’t.

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He never showed the motor that a good MLB needs. To be a great player you have to play every down, Rolando took too many plays off (dogged it).

We will know at the start of camp next year if there is some desire there. He will either work his ass off and show up weighing about 250 ready to roll, or he will JaMarc up and come in at 280. We will know in 5 months how much drive there is.

Really hated that one play where JC threw the ball behind Miller for a near-pick instead of running up the massive hole in the middle of the field.
freakin JC, but how much better would Orton be?
—————-
I saw 3 behind-the-receiver-passes. Orton? Dream BIG, McNabb will be available. Everyone hated Vick coming here!

I don’t know if we can easily upgrade Campbell in 2011, but if we don’t do it by 2012 I will be irrate.

He is destined to QB 7-9 teams. May not be entirely his fault, but it is what it is.

http://Raiders.com RaiderTW

Would be sublime to watch you and MR become Donks.
—————–
Hahahahaha, and go down with THAT ship and have an owner who really HAS alzheimer’s.

DKnight007

413.Dakota Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Hue Jackson has vastly improved our offense, and deserves the majority of credit for any improvement we had this season over last year, however, some of his decisions are baffling.

I have no problem if the Raiders get rid of Hue, as long as Cable is gone too.

^^^^^^^^
Only coach they would even consider hiring is Harbaugh. Other than that it will be Cable and or Hue again.

tuckrulefool

With a run game I’d look at Palmer. Assuming he was cut (no trade/draft pick deals). He has his issues but I think he might flourish once away from the divas (and the mess that is Cincinnati). Here the QB would fill (much needed) leadership shoes vs what he has now –>playing games with Ocho and that other idiot.

Drafting a qb? Really? With this franchise?

No thanks, been there done that!

DKnight007

419.RaiderfanNY Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 9:17 am
There are plenty of things to not like about yesterday’s game.

You have Hue Jackson’s unwillingness to run the ball between the guards against an undersized D.

You have John Marshall sticking with a one-linebacker defense when it was clear that they could not stop the run.

But the main thing I take from the game is Jason Campbell will never get it done against quick, aggressive defenses. He is too slow to make decisions and release the ball. His first concern is not making mistakes and he is actually afraid to throw the ball down field. And, most importantly, he is just not accurate enough. No more than half his passes are where they need to be.

If Campbell is the starter next year, say hello to 8-8.

We need a QB who is not currently on the roster. Who should that be? Beats me.

^^^^^^^
I wonder if McNabb would do any good here in Oakland.

http://0 Bob Marley

Dakota

–”Hue Jackson has vastly improved our offense, and deserves the majority of credit for any improvement we had this season over last year, however, some of his decisions are baffling.

I have no problem if the Raiders get rid of Hue, as long as Cable is gone too.”–

Come on man.

Nobody expected the Raiders to become a top 10 offense in both scoring and yards per game, they did it under Hue….Frankly, I didn’t think Bill Walsh himself could pull it off.

And he’s done it with below average play from the QB and WR positions.

We’re not gonna like every call he makes but he’s the least of our problems.

–”Hue Jackson has vastly improved our offense, and deserves the majority of credit for any improvement we had this season over last year, however, some of his decisions are baffling.

I have no problem if the Raiders get rid of Hue, as long as Cable is gone too.”–

Come on man.

Nobody expected the Raiders to become a top 10 offense in both scoring and yards per game, they did it under Hue….Frankly, I didn’t think Bill Walsh himself could pull it off.

And he’s done it with below average play from the QB and WR positions.

We’re not gonna like every call he makes but he’s the least of our problems.

++++++++|
Bob, nice to hear from you!

I am a big fan of Hue Jackson’s….as compared to Tom Cable. But some of his decisions are questionable. I am not advocating for Hue to be fired, but if he was fired, it wouldn’t break my heart. There are some decent coordinators who could maximize our run game and maybe adjust our offense to attack our opponent’s weak spots. I think Hue gets flustered when something doesn’t work right away and has trouble adjusting in-game.

He is certainly heads and shoulders above Cable as a play caller, but he leaves a lot to be desired too. If the choice is keep Cable and Hue leaves, or fire Cable and make Hue HC, and no legit HC wants the job, then I am fully on board with making Hue the HC!

http://0 Bob Marley

DHB was a big mistake by Al Davis, the kid should not have been the 7th pick.

He should have been drafted in the 2nd round and viewed as a project, if that had been the case we would be thinking “he’s slowly coming along, maybe next year he’ll be ready”.

http://Raiders.com RaiderTW

So bring in a QB who got benched for Rex Grossman? And the team actaully played better wtih Grossman?
———————-
Remember who benched him. YOU would rather have Orton or Grossman? McNabb (no matter what his age) is an instant upgrade over JC. McNabb will be available too.

J Hill

Bob Marley Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 9:49 am

DHB was a big mistake by Al Davis, the kid should not have been the 7th pick.

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A lot of people said the same thing about DMac. Then year what, 3, bam!

J Hill

I wanted McNabb last offseason when the rumors started we may get him. Was pretty excited about the prospects.

Even James Jett showed something his first year…heck, his first year numbers are better than DHB’s first TWO year’s numbers.

DHB 35-490-2
Jett 33-771-3

DHB will never even come close to Jett’s career numbers of 256 receptions, 4417 yards and 30 TDs.

Is it okay that we picked a player at #7 who will not even be as good as James friggin Jett?

Just Fire Baby

Absolutely not to McNabb.

I would say the same about Carson, unless he was waived. Not giving up any draft picks for something that isn’t a given, which he isn’t.

Just Fire Baby

James Jett caught the TD in the snow game.

Pretty amazed a wispy, track-burner like him would have success in a goalline, blizzard situation.

DKnight007

195.SnB Production Says:
December 26th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Alex,

I don’t think there are many people here saying JC is an elite or top 10 QB.

He’s a sericeable QB and that’s all any rational fan, knowing the challenges with the organization and coaching, can really expect.

Free agency is dead man. There are no slam-dunks…so you stick with plodding and steady for another year and rely on running the ball, limiting turnovers…and hope they can make an upgrade in the O-Line and receiving corps.

We don’t have a Peyton or Brady or Vick or Schaub….the Raiders drafted JaDavis….when you draft a guy like JaDavis…you won’t have an elite QB or one in the making.

Fortunately, the rest of the roster has improved enough for the team to compete

^^^^^^^
Have to find a true #1 WR and keep upgrading the O-Line and D-Line, so they can stop the run consistently.

http://Raiders.com RaiderTW

Not so excited this year after seeing him face plant in Washington
————
Shanny’s biggest shortcoming is he’s no people person, no personel guy, can’t you tell from the Haynesworth/McNabb debacle. Hell, his SON benched McNabb, uncool.
Do you think JC is better?